Privacy not Prism

Update sent to the court

We have recently filed several documents with the court, including an update submission, a new witness statement and a timeline of events.

Our case remains adjourned following the decision of the court in April 2014. However, we have asked that the adjournment now be lifted, meaning the case will become active again.

The case was adjourned pending a decision from the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) in the case brought by Liberty, Privacy International, Amnesty International and others. The IPT has now issued its judgment. In fact it has issued two judgments: one in December 2014 and a second in February 2015. The IPT found that the government's regime covering interception and the receipt of intercepted data complies with Article 8 ECHR. In its second judgment it found that, historically, the non-statutory regime governing the receipt of intercepted data from the US was in breach of Article 8 ECHR. However, it has not found that the legislative regime authorising and regulating any of these activities is or was at any time in breach of Article 8 ECHR (nor did it have the power to do so).

As these judgments have now been issued we are hopeful that our case will proceed very soon. It is also likely that the claimants in the IPT case will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, where their case would probably be heard alongside our case. We have told the court we are happy for this to happen. It is an opportunity for all evidence and claims to be heard together. We are currently waiting to hear from the court about when the case will proceed.